Royal Canin Hypoallergenic recall

The Royal Canin recall hit us hard. Hypoallergenic is the prescription diet we use second most (after Royal Canin’s Calorie Control). Over fifty of our clients feed it to as many as 100 of our patients. On Friday we sent out thirty-nine sets of bloodwork to Antech, almost what we’d expect to perform in a full month. We had another thirteen cats scheduled to come in for testing on Saturday. We’re performing urinalyses in house and sending out for CBCs and general chemistry profiles. I expect our bill to Royal Canin (who told us they will pay for testing of any cat that has eaten Hypoallergenic in the past six months) to be in the $8,000–$10,000 range, not including treatment costs for those cats showing signs of renal failure (so far, at least two) and not including overtime costs for our staff who have worked extra-long hours the past few days.

Royal Canin’s Handling of the Recall
Catmanager’s wife contacted our Royal Canin representative about three weeks ago to report a cat she had seen in early February with unusual urine crystals. The cat had slightly elevated BUN and creatinine (but still within normal range), had been vomiting, and was generally ADR. Fast forward several weeks and those odd crystals were popping up all over the country, now identified as melamine (Antech has a nice PDF with nine photographs). When my wife realized what she’d likely been seeing, she called our Royal Canin rep. The cat had been eating Hypoallergenic. Our rep said he was unaware of any problems but advised my wife to contact one of the company’s staff veterinarians.

Now that Royal Canin has recalled Hypoallergenic (along with a few other diets) because it contains tainted rice protein, we really wish my wife had made that second call (the birth of our first child got in the way). Had she talked with one of Royal Canin’s vets, would they still have reported “we have no confirmed cases of illness in pets” in their press release announcing the recall?

Probably yes, because a “confirmed” case is worlds away from a “suspected” case. Although I find the semantic game frustrating, it’s a small annoyance in what seems to be an otherwise forthright and responsible response—certainly Royal Canin has outperformed Hill’s in handling the recall. Unlike Hill’s, our Royal Canin rep contacted us immediately about the recall. We also didn’t have to wait for days for them to announce that they’d reimburse for testing. We were simply told that testing would be covered as long as we could show that the client had purchased a bag of recalled food within the last six months.

The response on the two companies’ Web sites is also quite different. Royal Canin’s front page is currently all about the recall. You can’t miss it. If one were unaware that Hill’s products had been recalled and visited the main page of their Web site, one would leave still unaware (unless one read the “Letter to Pet Owners” that is linked to from the main page). The page instead implies that Hill’s foods are unaffected by the recall: “Feed with Confidence.” “Wheat Gluten Free.” “Hill’s products not affected by rice protein concentrate recall.”

(We don’t use any P&G or Purina products, so I haven’t been as aware of their responses. Checking quickly, I don’t see any mention of the recall on Iams’ U.S. page. Purina addresses the recall on its main page.)

For several years now, my wife’s confidence in Hill’s products has steadily declined. For at least the past eighteen months she has refused to carry most of their maintenance diets. She finds that the Royal Canin prescription diets are generally more effective (k/d and z/d are the only Hill’s Prescription Diets we regularly use). Now, after watching them respond poorly over the last month to the pet food recall, her confidence has plumeted to new lows, and we’re seriously considering carrying only k/d and z/d.

Royal Canin, itself not free of warts (we’ve complained loudly in the past about poor communication from them), does at least seem to handle recalls well, admitting the problem in a timely manner and not shying away from their fiscal responsibility.

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25 Responses to “Royal Canin Hypoallergenic recall”

I’m glad to hear that about Royal Canin. We used their geriatric food for awhile, until one of our vets said they didn’t like them at all and recommended we switch to another brand. We switched to Wysong, as one of our pets felt better after taking them off Hills Science Diet. However, over all we were happy with the information that we as a consumer (not a vet) were able to find out about Royal Canin.

Just to clarify: At my wife’s clinic we don’t carry or recommend any of the Royal Canin maintenance diets. Many of Royal Canin’s prescription diets were acquired when RC bought Waltham and IVD. It’s those diets that my wife likes best and uses most. I don’t think she uses any prescription diets that originated with RC. We sorely miss Waltham, whose maintenance line we used to recommend. Sadly, RC dropped Waltham’s wellness diets in favor of its own during the acquisition.

[…] find out if RC sent a letter to the veterinary community today as well. In the meantime, vetcetera has a post concerning Royal Canin. His conclusion (read the whole piece, though — it’s worth it): […]

Since it has only been a recent change that dog food manufacturers are testing for melanine, do we know when this started?
When I talked to RC they claimed I was the only person to have made a report and that was the end of the story from them.
How long have they been importing from China?
This switch to RC was vetinarian supervised.

I have just come across this site and would like to add this info. My female dog bloated for no “concrete” reason we could determine in late January. I immediately contacted IAMS/EUKANUBA, and spoke with one of their “vet techs” at length about my suspicions that the food could have been a factor. They told me to throw away the bag, and they sent me coupons for free replacement food. We used one bag, but were frightened to continue after reading the recall details. We switched to Dick Van Patten’s Duck and Potato formula. Though our dogs had eaten this formula previously, two of them vomited it up twice. THAT formula was not recalled. We reported our problem to Natural Balance two weeks ago, using their online contact email. STILL no response from them. We trust our dogs’ “reports” rather than FDA/Pet Food Indus. At our wits end, we have begun cooking all meals…very time consuming and expensive. We feel we have no alternative. The more we read, the more we are convinced that the entire industry needs to be revamped, inside out. Also, we have spoken to WAY TOO MANY pet owners whose vets are NOT reporting demise of their pets in possible connection with the tainted food. I had a call from a fellow last night who arrived home to find his 8 month old mastiff dead…it was robust when he left for the day. It had blood coming from its nose. He called his vet requesting an autopsy…he was refused, told it was no use, too many hours following the death. A second vet told him the same thing. He buried the dog, and called me because he is going out of his mind searching for possible explanations..and grief. I did not/do not know the individual..he found my number at a club website for his breed. I can only underline the fact that there are MANY deaths going unresearched, unreported…after all of these weeks and public outcry. Yes, our system is broken. We have lost our faith in the veterinary community/pet food community/government agencies formed to protect us.

My cats died recently, one with a kidney failure and one, on the table by the veterian, by heartarrest. Both where from good, different, breeders en didn’t become 5 years old. They were onwly fed Royal Canin Persian 30, from the start the become by uw thil there dead (05-01-07 & 30-05-07). The Persian 30 (always package 4 Kg)is fabricated in France.

I have de veterian rapport of my oldest cat here in front of my. In total she has been sik more than 5 times during her live with the same symtoms. She had two CAC point and had a beautiful litter, which are all very healty, I also tested her for PKD, where she was found neg.

My second cat died in the hands of the ER doctor, off Veterian University Utrecht, I will call today If the have the results of the authopsy and if this is neg. if they can tested again on mylemine and to acids.

I have a question, I have a Shiba Inu and she has been to the vet twice. The first time she went they said she has crystals which can form into stones, so they put her on Clavimax twice a day, and everything seemed fine. Then about 3-4 weeks after stoping the antibiotic it started up again with the blood in her urine. I took her to the Banfield Vet at Petsmart and they diagnosed her with two 1/2in bladder stones. They put her on Clavimax again and gave her Hills perscription canin Urinary S/O 13. I’m not familiar with the brand she’s usually on Natures Recipe Lamb Meal Recipe. She seems to be okay with no side effects but I was wondering if I could get some imput since I’m not familiar with the product.

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